Media: Boxes and Arrows takes on Guidelines

"Making guidelines part of the team" by Tanya Rabourn is a useful look at the status that should be given guideliness and the fuss that has blown up around them through misapplication. She draws on sources such as IBM and Microsoft on one hand and academics and commentators on the other.

'When knowledge is captured in the form of a guideline, it's known as a prescriptive theory. Prescriptive theories suggest actions to take that will lead to desired results. Guidelines aren't rules to be enforced. They don't eliminate creativity and innovation from the design process. Instead guidelines are a vital part of our decision strategy during the design process.'

She suggests we consider the following when assessing the applicability of a guideline:

1) Design can never be static over time.

2) The phrase "interactive media" includes a plural noun.

Elegantly, she doesn't offer guidelines, just a good discussion of key points to consider. The work, appropriately enough, is being left for us to do.

Associated Link: Boxes and Arrows: Making guidelines part of the team

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Source: BBC, 12 March 2010
 
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The Net generation, Unplugged
Source: The Economist, 11 March 2010
 
Is it really helpful to talk about a new generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with the internet?

Rewriting the Human-Computer interaction Handbook
Source: CIOL, 10 March 2010
 
Indrani Medhi of Microsoft Research India has developed text-free user interfaces (UIs) to allow any illiterate or semi-literate person on first contact with a computer, to proceed with minimal or no assistance.

Lip reading Mobile promises End to noisy phone calls
Source: BBC, 9 March 2010
 
A prototype device shown off at CeBIT could allow people to conduct silent phone conversations.

Games User Researchers band together
Source: UN, 8 March 2010
 
The number of UX professionals in gaming has reached critical mass.

Quince Pro enables privately-held UX Design Libraries
Source: Infragistics, 6 March 2010
 
Infragistics has launched Quince Pro, a private, secure and organized way to collaborate, communicate and cultivate private UX design libraries to ensure consistent user experiences across teams, departments and companies.

Announcing a new issue of the Journal of Usability Studies
Source: UPA, 5 March 2010
 
UPA is happy to announce the publication of the second issue of volume 5, the Journal of Usability Studies.

Impatient versus Bored
Source: Gerry McGovern, 4 March 2010
 
Customers are much more likely to get impatient with your website than they are to be bored with it.

Futures Thinking: Writing Scenarios
Source: Fast Company, 3 March 2010
 
A valuable skill for UX folks (that's 'how to write scenarios', not 'scenarios in which one writes').

How to Conduct a Usability Review
Source: UsefulUsability, 2 March 2010
 
Never hurts to be reminded.